Wednesday, August 5, 2015

'Tolikara incident

'Tolikara incident

On Friday the 17 July an incident occurred
in Karubaga, the capital of Tolikara district resulting in about 60 kiosks and
houses being burned. The fire also spread and burned a nearby small
mosque. One student was killed and 11 civilians were injured when the
security forces opened fired to disperse a gathering of residents who
according to first reports had attacked a group of Muslims who were about
to perform Idul Fitri prayers to celebrate the end of the fasting month
Ramadan. The incident has received a large amount of media coverage in the
local and national press over the past few weeks with dramatic headlines such
as 'Extremists burn down mosque on Eid"

GIDI’s members were injured in hospital after the incident – Jubi (20 July)

The incident is reported to have begun
when a group from the Evangelical Church of Indonesia (GIDI) who
were holding a conference in a nearby church had complained about the volume of
the sound coming from a mosque’s loudspeakers. According to the police the
crowd started throwing stones at Muslims performing their outdoor Eid al-Fitr prayers
resulting in the worshippers fleeing to a nearby local military office for
protection. The military claim they fired warning shots however, one student, Edi
Wanimbo (15 years old) was killed and eleven people injured.

Security forces fired warning shots to disperse a crowd of about 200 after they disrupted an Islamic prayer meeting and attacked a mosque. (SP Photo/Robert Isodorus) Jakarta Globe 22 July

Tempo reported (19/7) that the President
of the GIDI, Rev. Dorman Wandikmbo, said the unrest was initially caused by the
police shooting indiscriminately at residents who asked Muslims to practice Eid
prayers without loudspeakers. Unhappy with the response some people got angry and
burned kiosks with the fire accidentally spreading to the nearby mosque. Natalius
Pigai, a commissioner at the National Commission for Human Rights said that the
conflict was also triggered by police shootings against Christians. “It
seems to have been a misunderstanding that GIDI is being hostile to Islam. In
fact, they were not planning to burn the mosque. People were upset because of
the police shootings ”(Tempo 18/7). National police chief General Badrodin
Haiti admitted that the police had opened fire in the incident in Tolikara.
“The victims were shot because they were pelting stones at Muslims who
were just performing Eid prayers," he said after visiting
Karubaga. General Badrodin Haiti said the police were still investigating
the incident with regard to processing the case including the shooting and the
torching incidents. At least 153 residents in Karubaga were evacuated to
several tents set up at the Karubaga Military Headquarter on the Saturday The
Papua Regional Police chief, Inspector General Yotje Mende, said the victims
needed assistance, particularly clothes, since their belongings had all been
razed by the fire.

Religious leaders, both Muslim and Evangelical Churches in Indonesia (GIDI) made peace in the yard of the local military command, Karubaga City, Tolikara on Wednesday, July 22, 2015. (Tempo.co 23 July)

In a Jubi report (20/7) The President
of the GIDI, Rev. Dorman Wandikmbo said is not true that GIDI’s members forbid
the celebration of Eid Mubarak for Muslims in Tolikara. He also denied
that GIDI’s members had set a plan to burn a mushola during the
incident. Rev. Wanimbo said, about three weeks before implementing the event,
local church officials had issued a notification letter that had been approved
and recognized by the local government, army and police. “When the day
came, we were surprised that the police and army allowed worship to carried out
in the field and using loudspeakers. We have already conveyed (our plans) in
the letter,” he said. Therefore, GIDI’s members come to negotiate with Muslims
who are preparing to run the Eid prayer. Negotiations had not started and
suddenly one of the GIDI’s members was shot.

An extract from another report in Jubi
(20/7).

The Rev. Wanimbo further said on 17 July
in the morning, the Muslim did the prayer in the Mushola’s yard and used the
speaker. Due to this action, about 15 students came to the Mushola and asked
them politely that they should be do prayer inside because the distance of
Mushola and venue of seminar is only about 300 meters. It would give bad
impression. “But our Muslim brothers were angry and there’s among them carrying
a gun and shot a fire. Eventually everyone ran but some got shot. Finally, many
people started to come including some guests and myself. But we pulled back
because afraid of random bullets,” he said. At that time, Wandimbo said, the
crowd scattered and became upset when seeing some have been shot. Their
emotions were provoked and they burned the stall instead of mushola that was
located in the centre of area. But because the stall was made by wood, the fire
spread to resident’s houses and mushola where located behind the stall

Another extract from an article in GIV
News, Who Orchestrated the Tolikara Incident? suggests outside
interference

External Influence?

All these uncertainties, combined with
the loss of life and the fact that this unfortunate incident occurred on the
usually highly tolerant Papua, has sparked the theory that the entire conflict
was orchestrated by someone outside Papua. This perpetrator is believed to aim
for chaos by causing sectarian conflicts in Papua, a region which has only
recently started to improve its relationship with Jakarta, under the support
and leadership of President Widodo.

The strongest opinion so far came from
Fahmi Habsyi, Executive Director of the Trisakti Evaluation Center (Pusaka
Trisakti), who believed that what happened in Tolikara was purely an intelligence
operation. Habsyi trusts that the Papuan people are tolerant and very polite,
and thus the incident cannot be seen on its own. He also thinks that the attack
may be related to Widodo’s policy of accelerating development in Papua.

“The sequence [of events] must be seen
from several one-sided actions which have demanded a referendum on Papua…
Someone is trying to create trouble, and also offers the solution through
another motive and aim for a compromise. This is a classic style. Hopefully
[President Widodo] can see it. Do not underestimate the incident. Remember the
riot in Ambon 1999, it was sparked by a mere fight in a terminal. What happened
in Papua is more serious than that,” explained Habsyi to Berita Satu.

Habsyi’s sentiment is echoed by Laode
Ida, Chairman of the Presidium of East Indonesia Association (PPIT). “Violence
towards a religious group is not the character of Papuans. The Papua people are
not like that. They are tolerant and respectful of other people’s religious
freedom. We strongly believe there are groups who come from outside Papua and
then spread a provocative propaganda.” Ida also demanded the government to
mediate a formal reconciliation process in Tolikara to prevent a cycle of
revenge, as reported by Kompas.

The possibility of an outsider
whispering to the GIDI congregation has not escaped the attention of General
Badrodin Haiti, head of the National Police. “Someone deliberately set the
riot. However, we can’t confirm yet the existence of a foreign power in the
incident. But there are several people from out of the region who were involved
in the riot. We are still looking for the intellectual actor.” http://www.globalindonesianvoices.com/21680/who-orchestrated-the-tolikara-incident/

And in Jubi (31/7)

A deputy chairman of the Papua
Legislative Council’s Commission I for Politics, Government, Foreign, Legal dan
Human Right Affairs, Orwan Tolli Wone, said political interests were involved
in the incident that occurred at Karubaga, Tolikara Regency two weeks ago. The
councilor from the Tolikara electoral region said both sides need to concentrate
on conflict resolution and that the incident had no connection with a
particular religion. “It’s only a group of people who have an interest in local
and national politics. I suspect the incident involves both local and national
issues. I can make this conclusion because for decades Muslims and Christians
in Tolikara have lived in harmony. There’s never a problem. Why did it just
happen right now?” Wone said on Thursday (30/7/2015).

Prosecution begins: AK (center), a suspect in last week’s Tolikara riot, arrives at the Jayapura Police headquarters in Papua, on Friday. The police have named two suspects involved in the violence that claimed one life, injured 12 and saw the burning down of a market and a small mosque. (Jakarta Post 25 July)

The media including social media has
come under some critism for their response in spreading news before
clarification. The Chairman of the Alliance of Independent Journalist (AJI)
Kota Jayapura, Victor Mambor said he highlighted more to media coverage when
the misunderstanding was occurred in Tolikara. “Tolikara incident became a
lesson. At that time, before doing clarification, media has published the news
that likely triggered this misunderstanding to be a national issue,” said
Mambor. Further, Mambor who is also the editor in chief of tabloidjubi.com and Koran Jubi also
regretted the police’s act broadcasting the short message to the press and
likely triggered the incident as a national issue. “At the end, we are all
getting the impact. The police shouldn’t too rush to send the short message
without verification. The sort message was forwarded from Papua Police
Spokesperson, and we don’t know what the purpose is,” he said. (Arjuna
Pademme/rom)

Papua Youth Chairman, Ridwan
al-Makassary said the Tolikara incident that occurred on 17 July 2015 has been
wrongly interpreted by most media workers, as they didn’t apply journalistic
standards. And when making coverage of such incident that was triggered by
miscommunication between interreligious communities, a journalist is expected
able to cover it with the perspective of peace journalism. “I see the peace
journalism as foundation to get a solution at that point but didn’t executed by
journalists,” said the lecturer of Jayapura Science and Technology University
who spent most of his life from childhood in Serui during a dialogue ‘Peace
Papua, Peace Indonesia’ held by national television station in Jayapura on
Saturdary (1/8/2015).

Jubi reported(4/8) that the president of the Evangelical
Church in Indonesia (GIDI) Rev. Dorman Wandikbo visited the Papua Police on
Monday (3/8/2015) to be questioned over the incident in Tolikara. He was
accompanied by several church leaders and about 30 GIDI congregation members
and supporters. He was welcomed by the Chairman of the Papua Legislative Council
who had previously been there. “As a
good citizen, today I came to meet the police’s call to convey what did I see
and feel. Some church leaders and partisans wanted to come along with me.
Lawyers Gustaf Kawer, Olga Hamadi and Yan Warinussi will stand beside me as
attorney,” Rev. Wandikbo said on the way to the police headquarter. After being
questioned, the Rev. Dorman Wandikbo and his accompaniers returned to Kingmi
Church Synod Office and interviewed only by Jubi.

No reporters interviewed him but some of
them interviewed his lawyers to get detail information on investigation. To
Jubi, he said in addition to meet the summon, he had two points to be said to
the police. “At first, to testify the chronology of Tolikara incident that
killed a fifteen years old boy, Endi Wanimbo and injured eleven people and
burned dozens of houses and a musholla. The second is to convey the result of
agreement to resolve the dispute between GIDI and Muslim communities in
Tolikara,” he told Jubi at Kingmi Church Synod Office after undergoing the
investigation. Meanwhile, his attorney Gustaw Kawer said the President of GIDI
was summoned to testify as a witness. “He was examined as a witness and being
questioned with 37 queries for four hours,” said Kawer. (Victor
Mambor/rom) http://tabloidjubi.com/en/2015/08/04/president-of-gidi-answers-police-summon/

The Tolikara Police chief, Adj. Sr. Comr. Soeroso was reassigned 10 days after the incident.

According to Neles Tebay (in an article
in Tempo 31 July) eight government institutions announced they will conduct
investigations into the incident, “ The National Police, the National
Commission on Human Rights, the Religious Affairs Ministry, Commission II of
the House of Representatives (DPR), the Indonesian Council of Ulama (MUI), the
Indonesian Christian Student Movement (GMKI), the Tamir Masdjid Silahturrahmi
Forum and Mushala Indonesia (Fahmi Tamami), and the Tolikara Papua People’s
Committee”. As Neles noted in the article they are all from outside of Papua.It would appear that the media coverage and
investigations into the 'Tolikara incident will be ongoing for some time.